Hey gang,

I have a set of full size Pioneer stereo speakers, and I want to hook them up to my computer. I have the Hercules Game Theater XP sound card. Can this be done ? I have seen it before, do I need a dedicated receiver ? Please let me know any solutions .

One of my good friends has an awesome home theater speaker system hooked up to his computer. But he has a receiver and lots of cables to hook it up. I'm not really sure if you absolutely need a reciever, but I figure there is probably ways to work around this problem. I'll ask around and see if I can find out for you boeing.

Thanks Super, I really want to do it without getting a second receiver. I appriciate the help!

Receiver? Do you mean an amplifier? If the speakers are active, you can plug them right into your soundcard.

Exactly what I thought while reading this thread. Since you said the speakers are "full size" stereo speakers, then I think they're not meant for PCs i.e. they need an amplifier. You can try powering up the speakers using the sound card output, but I doubt that'll work coz the sound card isn't powerful enough to power the speakers.

Get an amplifier, connect the speakers to the amp. Get a Y cable to connect the sound card line out/speaker out to any of the input source of the amp and you're good to go.

Full size pioneer will not even come close to being powered by the sound card. Think of the soundcard speaker out as putting out about the same amount of power (wattage is I believe the correct term) that a cd player or dvd player sends to the reciever/amplifier on a home theater system. I myself am playing my computer's sound through Cerwin Vega full size speakers - here is how I have it hooked up:
SBLive Value sound card outputting out of speaker out to a headphone to RCA (generic term - really called something else I think) which runs to an input on my Technics (don't have the $$$ for something like Harmon Kardon or Yahama) 100watt x 5 reciever/amp which then sends the signal to my Cerwins.

Thanks guys, I was hoping not to have to buy an amp but I guess I am going to. Well, at least here in the states I can cruise eBay and the pawn shops. I don't want to go overboard, I just want to see if I can put them to use. I play bass and most of the time I listen to music on the computer and play to it however, my computer speakers quite often get drowned out by my bass amp.

I didn't want to either.

And now.... HEHEHEHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA {insert manical, evil laughter....}..... I can kill birds that fly past my window....

lol

Hey there!

I have a good quality amp and speakers but any music played through the sound card sounds crappy (not perfect like music coming direct from a cd player)... I was wondering if it is my old $20 yamaha soundcard or winamp or just a by-product of music going through the computer - the mp3s I play have been ripped at 256kbps??

[SNGX1275] - How does the SB Live! sound compared with a component CD player?

This is a terrible dilemma as my $2000 hk dsp/amp doesn't deserve to play such aweful quality music.

Thanks in advance!

brent
brent@!SPAM!devil.com

What kind of cable are you using to connect the sound card to the amplifier....??? I have similar setup and noticed much increases in quality with a better and shorter cable...

I have a new Y-cable? (the 3.5mm stereo to 2 rca plugs) anyway when I plug the same cable into the headphone jack on the front of my cd player the sound quality increased dramaticaly... not just louder but the bass is punchier and the treble is much less barkey..

brent

To be honest - horrible. Technics isn't the highest quality stuff avaiable but like I said I didn't/dont' have the money. But the sound quality from my Technics CD Changer to my Technics amp is amazing, sound quality from sound card to reciever is horrible compared. I'm just running fairly cheap RCA lines to reciever, but a comparative quality wire is running from the CD player to the reciever so there is probably some difference because its 3' vs. 6' but the difference is too much to blame on that. I was thinking of getting a better sound card, but there is just so much I want to buy and so little money....

How about the Creative Sound Blaster Extigy?

I read about that on creative's site. I couldn't find anything on its power output. For those 12" Pioneer speakers my guess is that you are going to need at least 50watts per speaker to get any form of decent sound out of them.

Sound Blaster Extigy? Thats quite pretty. But should we be waiting until stereos have USB input?

brent

Hi, Just joined this site after reading some post, looks like a helpful place. so heres my quick question...

I have soundblaster live! 5.1 Value outputting the 6 channels to my RCA home theater using the 6 channel input. the 5 channels are working but the sub isn't. I have tried playing Far Cry and watch DVD's, both with 5.1 enabled and play Mp3's using Windows media player but none of them output the bass to my reciever.

Is there some check box or option somewhere to get the sub to work?

Thanks

Note: I have also tried using the digital out on the sound card and coax in on the reciever but then I dont get the center channel or really 5.1 unless I play a DVD. If playing a game with this setup I cant hear anything in front of me. So if anyone knows how to get 5.1 in games using the coax please let me know or if you know how to set up the 6 channels I can settle for that too.